Post-run lunch yesterday was a random assortment of things that came together pretty nicely in the end. (And yes, I ate this as I sat on the floor in front of the TV). This random plate included:

2 fried eggs topped with feta cheese and pesto

leftover kale salad w/ lemon balsamic vinaigrette

avocado

baby carrots

Snacks

So, most of you probably snack on a variety of different foods. Usually, I do too, however this weekend I made two batches of no-bake chocolate peanut butter protein bars and the second one is already halfway gone!

First batch of homemade no-bake chocolate peanut butter protein bars

And the second batch…(which resembles nothing like the picture anymore, because only fragments now remain)

Since I didn’t get a chance to take enough pictures for a recipe post, I guess I’ll have to make another batch sometime soon. Be warned: these are filling and delicious, and also addicting. Make sure you don’t just bring the whole pan with you in front of the TV or to your desk while you work. I speak from experience.

My beloved coconut banana pancakes kept me full for a really long time, and since I had them closer to brunch than breakfast, my midday snacking turned out to be fairly sporadic. Random snacking from the day included cottage cheese, almond butter, blueberries, and some no-bake chocolate peanut butter protein bars that I whipped up thanks to some inspiration from Pinterest.

They actually taste pretty good, but I’m going to need some tweaking before sharing the recipe, because these were a little too crumbly. That didn’t stop me from having a lot some samples before my run 🙂

Workout

The title of this post does a very good job of describing my sentiments regarding my evening run. Ever since last week’s run of death through the desert, I haven’t felt like going on any long runs. This has made me pretty sad, since I really like going on long runs not only for fitness reasons, but also in order to clear my mind. I’ve been replacing my long runs this week with some treadmill intervals, and although they are hard, I don’t get the same kind mental “me” time.

Beautiful evening for a run in Philly

So, today I headed into my run with no expectations, but was pleasantly surprised when I was able to cover 12 kilometres and feel good. I honestly didn’t even care about my pace, and although I did bring my Garmin with me to track my distance, I didn’t worry about how fast I was going. Instead, I focused on how I was feeling, and let that guide my pace.

Dinner

When I got home, it was dinner time! On the menu tonight was Trader Joe’s sundried tomato chicken sausage and kale salad.

This was kind of an impulse buy, and I was pleasantly surprised! They were very flavourful and not too salty.

Along with the kale, I combined yellow pepper, cherry tomatoes, carrots, red onion, feta cheese, and lemon balsamic vinaigrette. It was delicious, and very similar to my Lemon Balsamic Kale Quinoa salad from the other day.

Now it’s time to find a fluffy chick flick on TV to watch while I do some research online. (Because that’s going to be so efficient…)